Recycling Water for the Toilet

[Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM]

Has anyone set up their rig to recycle grey water to use in their toilet yet?  I have heard of some folks doing this but am not sure of their end results.  They capture shower water in a tank and use it to flush the RV-type toilet.

Has anyone done this themselves and has it worked to your expectations?  It seems like a great way to save water.

When boondocking for long periods of time, I have a plastic bucket I put in the sink to capture water from washing my hands and use that for flushing my toilet, but if I were to build another bus, reusing water would definitely be a consideration.  Maybe I would try to build or buy a particle trap filter that can be dumped out weekly or something?

I am not so concerned about saving the planet as I am to extend my boondocking time.

Thoughts?

[dtcerrato]

A superb idea and you have started the wheels (in my head) spinning. Looking forward to responses to this post!

[luvrbus]

How do you control the smell of BW it stinks to high heaven even with the snake oil deodorizer's, with a washing machine the smell gets even worse,now all the larger RV's have a bath and a 1/2 even more water   

[ktmossman]

This definitely has the wheels spinning...  I think the key will be filtration so you don't have pump problems.  Beyond that, it would just be a separate capture tank (with an overflow to the black tank?) and a separate pump to the toilet fill line.  Minor considerations: I would probably want the ability to still evacuate the capture tank through the black tank for pre-storage/winterization and rinse purposes.  Would also have to make sure there is a minimum amount of water in that tank for flushing purposes.

[freds]

If you have a grey tank I think the simplest solution would be an add on a water dispenser nozzle that would at the push of a button activate a electric pump to pump water into the toilet.

Maybe someone could print a 3D part to do this.

I only have a combined grey/black water tank in my bus. However I am slowly working away on a recirculating shower system which requires the installation of a marine grey water Y valve.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O8FB7A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I suppose the recirculating shower system portion could be left pressurized with a tap off to the toilet for a direct water feed situation.

But then would you need a valve to switch between grey and fresh water?

Also do you subscribe to the water conservation process of "Yellow is mellow, brown must go..."

One of the mods that I am making to my water system is a water flow totalizer so I suppose I could start collecting usage.

[DoubleEagle]

Grey water can stink, especially in the warmer months. Filtering the water might help, but the smell might still be there. This idea might be more trouble than it is worth. The idea of conserving water is good, but it will have a price. We are not on the space station where everything including urine is recycled at great cost.

[chessie4905]

Our Grey water tank waste was always Sulphur smelling in warm weather. Even with some detergent and blue stuff.

[luvrbus]

Gary has a macerator toilet using recycled water would only add to problems with the macerator toilet he is always working on the toilet even using clean water 

[Van]

Gary has a macerator toilet using recycled water would only add to problems with the macerator toilet he is always working on the toilet even using clean water

Well yeah! With the amount of Mexican food that boy consumes ROFLMAO!!

[dtcerrato]

I have to totally drop the idea as I mentioned it to my wife and she said in no uncertain terms NO WAY! & that's an opinion I have to take seriously!

[buswarrior]

The ones who tried... we don't hear back...

Read between the lines...


I will not be doing it.

To do this, you need another pump, and it and the toilet machinery get gummed up with whatever is in the gray water, then you get to deal with all that early failure...

There's always somewhere else you can store more clean water, if maximum boondocking is your goal.

Filters? Plugged in no time.

Return to regularly scheduled programming.

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[TomC]

Most boats and yachts do NOT use the endless sea water to flush toilets-it just plainly stinks. I could imagine what using the gray water would smell like! Just keep it simple and use fresh water. I have 200gal fresh water on my truck with 110gal gray and 70gal black. I easily go 2 weeks with showers with my wife. Good Luck, TomC

[Utahclaimjumper]

 When the wife does dishes,, instead of using the sink, she puts a large bowl or pan in the sink so she can empty it in the toilet instead of the gray tank.. My black tank is larger than gray and it works for us well..  The soapy water helps to clean the black also..>>>Dan

[dtcerrato]

As a side bar our little bathroom sink can either be drained into the gray or the black tank. Our gray & black are each 74 gal. When boondocking the bathroom sink & toilet goes to black & the kitchen sink & shower goes to gray or in some cases goes to the ground. Having the bathroom sink drain into black helps with suspending the solids and soaping the black. In any case fresh water supply. On the shower head is a timed diverter solenoid that loops the fresh water back to the potable fresh tank until it warms then deactivates for instant hot at the shower head - saves a fair amount of fresh water!

[windtrader]

It seems the amount of water to flush is less than that to shower. Of course your personal habits dictate these numbers but if saving water is the goal, I'd look to use less water when taking a shower or washing dishes.